Gen Con Fires Its Entire Staff Of Woke Sci-Fi And Fantasy Writers From Its Writers' Symposium
Gen Con might be making moves to get away from woke activism, possibly from complaints of science fiction and fantasy fans who want the Writers' Symposium to be about writing.
Gen Con has been known for its woke activism over the last decade, miring the convention in identity politics when it used to be known as the greatest table gaming convention in existence. Nothing has been worse in this regard than the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium. This writing track was supposed to highlight great writers in science fiction and fantasy but instead devolved into SFWA’s political arm. After several years of failure, Gencon fired every staff member from the symposium to get a clean slate for the following year.
The Gen Con Writers’ Symposium is a veritable who’s who of SFWA clout chasers, mostly comprised of failed authors who use identity politics to get small publishing deals but rarely sell.
Here, one would see the likes of Cat Rambo, former SFWA president, and Monica Valenteinelli, a woman who publicly attacked OdysseyCon and bowed out because she didn’t want to be associated with a “known sexual harasser” which she accused a man of with no evidence. Patrick S. Tomlinson, a failed author and mentally ill Tweeter who infamously sued an online forum because they made fun of him, is also a guest year after year.
Looking at the lineup, woke activism and clout within SFWA are the only qualifiers for being featured guests and getting speaking slots at the convention. This year, Gencon decided to take action as the Writers’ Symposium devolved into worse divisive politics than ever, perhaps a move to get the symposium on a better track for the future.
Emily Bell (E.D.E. Bell) was the one who leaked the news on her Facebook, saying, “The GCWS committee was informed tonight at the very end of the meeting with Gen Con, with no reason given, that while our show went "really well" - no people on the 2024 committee will be invited back next year. I will be requesting a meeting with Mr. Adkison. At a minimum, I would like a reason given for our dismissal, because without a reason I will only have my own documentation to show, regarding how Gen Con addressed issues of both race and disability.”
Admittedly, Bell says she tried to make “race and disability” a more important issue than writing and science fiction and fantasy. She continued on her blog, “Many people were upset that I spoke publicly and also used the terms ‘race’ and ‘disability’. I spoke publicly, because I’d stayed silent all year, and this was the result. Based on that treatment, I had no confidence anything I said internally would make its way to Mr. Adkison. I used the terms not as a threat, but to convey why this is serious and why I want to talk to him personally.”
One can see the entitlement, as her activism in leftist political virtue signaling is supposed to give her a shield in her mind to maintain her authority positions in places like the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium in perpetuity. With “many people upset” because she tried to make it completely political and not about writing, as the headline stated, it makes sense that she would be removed if this is, in fact, the reason.
This wasn’t the only shocking political activism to happen at Gen Con. Cat Rambo, another serial member of the symposium speaking lineup, was accused of ranting about Jews in New York Publishing by a whistleblower at the convention. While she had the Gen Con Writing Symposium BlueSky account used as a bully pulpit to deny the allegations, many people came forward, recalling she did just as Fandom Pulse reported through the whistleblower.
The Symposium official account on BlueSky and Facebook appear to be controlled by E.D.E. Bell, too, as it’s currently reposting the complaints by Emily Bell to try to rile up the leftist mob to flood the Gen Con organizers with harassment over the firings. Many of the posts from the BlueSky account feature Bell, her badge photos, and so it appears as if she attempted to co-opt the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium as her own personal promotional arm.
Gen Con has a big mess because these people care far more about these clout positions than they do anything else, because it’s the only thing they have. These are failed authors who can’t do anything to get attention for their books, and so they make noise through leftist politics to get them into industry positions where they sound far more important than they are.
It remains to be seen whether Gen Con is starting from scratch because it wants to bolster attendance after a failure or whether the politically charged statements by Emily Bell and Cat Rambo upset far too many attendees and they want to move away from this kind of activism. Regardless, without the influence of the SFWA elites, the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium can only be better.
What do you think of the Gen Con Writers Symposium firing their entire SFWA elite staff? Will they be replaced with better science fiction and fantasy authors? Leave a comment and let us know.
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So SFWA is working hard to cripple GenCon, which is a wholly-owned arm of Hasbeen/WotC? Now that is a pleasant popcorn-worthy diversion. Two parasite organizations, draining the blood out of one another is a positive thing.
Whoever loses, we win? At this point, can they even claw back relevance?
It's certainly been interesting how things shake out with people being more open of their hatred and disgust of the woke. Of course though hate be the sword, and disgust the shield what really has been murderering the woke this year is how freely people are not consuming product, and plainly stating that the product sucks.
Gonna be a lotta bats claiming they were never in favour of the woke.
Forgiveness is for the repentant.
The rest go in the book of grudges.